Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
China the next sports Superpower?

I was expecting this to happen, in fact the world was expecting this to happen: "China is already leading heavily in the medals tally at Beijing Olympics". Olympics is just halfway and China has already bettered their last times performance of 32 golds (they now have 35 gold medals, equal to the ones the USA won last time in Athens).
The beauty of this years China's performance is they have grabbed medals from places where they were not considered good historically, say it womens swimming, archery. So with half of the medals still to come (most in Athletics though, USA stronghold), it will be interesting to see what final medals tally China ends up getting, AND can USA catch up?
I am also proud of the gold medal India (Abhinav Bindra) has won. But don't you think after so many years of Olympics participation, first Individual gold medal in the history of Olympics is a bit disappointing.
Added on 29th August:- Added a bit late here, China ended first with a real dominant performance winning 51 golds. Thats one of the highest in recent times (if we forget the 80/84 boycotted games). This is the arrival of the new sports superpower.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
This happens only in India
Arctic holds 90 billion barrels of oil: US
News excerpts from NDTV:
"The area north of the Arctic Circle has an estimated 90 billion barrels of recoverable oil, the US Geological Survey (USGS) has said.
Included in the Artic bonanza is 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 44 billion barrels of natural gas liquids, the USGS said in a statement posted on its website.
The Arctic Circle is the name given to the region around the North Pole. It includes the Arctic Ocean, the northern parts of Europe, Asia, North America and the Russian Far East."
No wonder Russia has been making claims to all the resources in the Arctic region.
"Before we can make decisions about our future use of oil and gas and related decisions about protecting endangered species, native communities and the health of our planet, we need to know what's out there," said USGS director Mark Myers.
This is something which is very true in the current scenario. Global warming has already become a monster which is directly affecting the Arctic endangered species. The quest of energy hungry world should not cause additional irreversible damage to these ecosystem.Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Visit to Golconda Fort, Hyderabad
I went to Hyderabad some time back to meet my cousin who works there in an video gaming company. We went out for site seeing in the afternoon. This video was taken from one of the structures during the visit to Golconda Fort. Golconda Fort is located on the western outskirts of the city. It is known for the amazing acoustic system. During the course of the video you will be hearing sounds of hands clapping. This is part of the demonstration given by some of the guides on the acoustic system, where a simple clap at the entrance of the gate can be heard at other end on the top of the fort. At ancient times, this was used to communicate (and also send warning signals). Also at the entrance can be seen the famous "Rahban" cannon.
There is a sound and light show that happens in the evening at the fort, after sunset. We took some ice-cream and joined the show. It started raining after during the course of the show and we had to leave the show halfway.